


Grand Junction Wine

by galadrieljones



Series: The Last of Us: Short Fictions [3]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Bonding, Comfort, Ellie's persistence, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Injury Recovery, Joel's stoicism, Love, Post-Apocalypse, The Past
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-18
Updated: 2020-03-18
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:41:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23204104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galadrieljones/pseuds/galadrieljones
Summary: After the ordeal at the Lakeside Resort, Joel and Ellie make a stop in Grand Junction, Colorado. Ellie asks Joel for some advice about love.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Series: The Last of Us: Short Fictions [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1049603
Comments: 2
Kudos: 78





	Grand Junction Wine

After David, Joel was able to get it together enough to hot-wire an old Silverado that Ellie had found in a garage near the resort. It was five hundred miles to Salt Lake City and freezing cold, so they left the horses watered and fed and set them free on the range. There was no clear path on state highways anymore. If they had taken US-Route 40, they risked facing a road obstructed by debris, plus fewer cars from which to syphon fuel for the ride. They took the I-70 instead, veering south around three or four national forests, which had become rife, fantastical territories full of hostile communities and clickers in the thousands. It was a scary place to be alive.

Ellie drove most of the way. They stopped at a winery in Grand Junction, about a halfway point, some ways off the interstate. The cellar was stocked with dusty old bottles, and while Joel started a fire with kindling he’d gathered upstairs, Ellie wandered around the rows and picked out a couple reds through the cobwebs. She had no idea what she was doing. She’d never tried wine before, but she knew that Riley had, and she thought it seemed interesting and grown-up. 

When she brought the bottles back up, she found Joel, leaning against the big, tall bar with his eyes closed. He was looking haggard and exhausted, wearing a wool coat he had stole off one of the dead back at the resort. Though he was healing and he hid his pain with expertise, Ellie knew that he was still physically wrecked. The fact he had let her drive was enough to worry her that he might somehow get bad again. She had stolen a bunch of those cipro injections off David and his cannibal army before they left, so at least there was that.

She went outside into the snow with her improving archery skills. She killed one rabbit, shot it right through the eyeball. Inside, she skinned it and cleaned it and stuck it on a makeshift spit and let it cook. Joel was quiet. It was just easier not to make a fuss, she figured.

“Hey,” she said after a while. She was sharpening her knife against a whetstone, watching the rabbit.

“Hmm,” said Joel, with his eyes closed.

“You, uh. You feeling okay?”

He sighed heavily. “Ellie.“

“Okay, okay,” she said. “Jesus.”

His eyes fell open, and he looked at her. It was an enormous comfort. “Why don’t you just start talking,” he said. “I’ll listen. Talking makes you feel better.”

“Are you saying I babble?”

“Yes,” he said. “I am.”

She took a deep breath. She wanted to talk, it was true. Ever since the mall, she had been planted with a kind of sudden-feeling sadness that had taken root from the ordeal with David, and the sadness was not without origin, though it had felt so for a long time. All the driving and the quiet and the wandering of the cellar had helped her locate its exact origin. 

“I guess…” she said. She set down her knife, warmed her hands in the fire. “I don’t know. Can I ask you something personal?”

“Sure,” said Joel. His eyes were closed again. He looked serene.

“Did you love Tess?” she said, hesitant. “I mean, was that…love?”

His breath seemed to catch, sort of. Or, that’s what she thought. His eyes were papery, sunken. He opened them and looked down at his hands as if they were, themselves, the source of all the hell he had lived. “I don’t know, Ellie.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “You don’t have to answer.”

“What’s going on with you?”

“I was just wondering,” she said. “I mean, before I met you, I had this friend. Her name was Riley. And she died. She got bitten, the same time as me. We had a…thing. I mean, we kissed, okay? It probably seems stupid to you, but it wasn’t to me. I don’t know what I’m saying.”

When she looked up, he had not looked away or closed his eyes. He just nodded in recognition. “It ain’t stupid at all. Go on.”

She leaned back on her palms. She gazed up at the ceiling. It was vaulted with these heavy wooden planks that were half rotted to the pulp. The whole place was overgrown with dormant grapevines that had infiltrated from the earth. “I was just wondering. How do you know? Like, if you love someone. I mean, she’s gone. I just, how will I ever know?”

Joel was looking at her now, crushed by the weight of his many historic tragedies. He didn’t move, because moving took energy, and he needed to save his energy. He just breathed. The fire crackled vibrantly, filling the room with the smell of meat and smoke. “Love is different for everybody, kiddo,” he said. “What it means for me might not be the same as what it means for you.”

“Well, what does it mean for you? Give me a point of reference.” She sat so expectantly beside him. She had moved closer at some point. She was extremely resilient, but he knew that impending before her were many years in which she would have to bring herself to accept all that had been taken, and in due time, she would establish a new code based entirely around how to protect the few good things that remained. He knew this all too well, and it made his heart feel sick.

“Okay,” he said, humoring her. “There are only a handful of people in my life who have ever really known me, Ellie.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he said. He was looking at the fire again, and all of its spirit. “Tommy. Sarah.” The rabbit was nearly done, he could see. “You.” He looked at Ellie. “And Tess.”

Ellie stayed quiet. She was listening very close wither her knees pulled up, and her hands behind her, getting dirty from the floor.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, if there is somebody in your life with whom you are able to let your guard down, even if only for a second, it could be something like love. But that’s just me.” He closed his eyes again, and the conversation ended.

She was satisfied.

A little time went by. Ellie yanked the rabbit off the spit and carved it up for the two of them. They ate side-by-side, with their fingers, drinking sugary wine out of the bottle. Ellie thought it tasted mostly gross, but she enjoyed the ritual feel. Joel told her to take it easy, but he didn't seem to mind much. What's a little cashed wine at the end of the world?

After a couple minutes, Ellie said, “So, you love me, huh?”

Joel grumbled, took a long pull from the bottle, giving her the side-eye. “Eat your damn food,” he said next. “We’re leaving in the morning. I need you fed.”

“Aye aye, cap’n.” She saluted.

Later on as Joel slept, the moon rose outside. Ellie kept watch on him until she couldn’t stay awake anymore, just to make sure he kept breathing.


End file.
